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“Where is the respect for the game?” Hurdle said. “He’s hit four homers in two days, does that mean you can take your bat and throw it 15-20 feet in the air when you pop up, like you should have hit your fifth home run? I would bet that men went over and talked to him, because I believe they’ve got a group there that speaks truth to power.”

“The catcher, I mean … he’s a talented young man,” Hurdle said. “There is a day, he would have been thrown out as soon as he (gestured) that the ball was high. Those are things you try to help your young players with as they go through it that’s not respect for the game, that’s not the way we do things here.”

“There is entitlement all over the world,” Hurdle said. “Sometimes, when you have a skill, you can feel special and you don’t get what it looks like. Most of the time here, we try to show our players what it looks that. And that’s usually enough.”

Hoby Milner struck out two Reds looking to end the game on Tuesday night and both complained vociferously to the umpire. I guess against a sidearmer, you can strike out looking on pitchers you thought were two feet off the plate.

This new MLB.TV interface for the radio broadcasts is absolutely terrible. They took away all the game info, including even the number of outs, which makes it really frustrating when you're half-listening at work and want to check in every now and then.

I just hate how it's become such a thing that you're basically forced to throw a ball back. Eventually, I guess someone will throw a fake ball if you insisted on keeping it. One reason to never sit out there, among many. Though my son really wants to one time, maybe I try the family section (is there still a family section?).

Depending on the game, you could still get tickets from the team. Probably too early to try the secondary market. You could also just scalp when you get there. I usually just buy mine before the year/from people I know (Spahn Insane still has his tickets I think, so it might be worth just dropping him a note).

For the Cell, you sometimes can find below face value on the secondary market, or just walk up and buy when you get there (and feel free to move around). Only tickets hard to get are the Cubs/Sox ones.

Suggestions on the best way to grab tickets for a game at Wrigley and a game at ... er, the other stadium?

The...other stadium...was probably the worst experience I've had at the parks I've visited. And not because of anything bad that happened to me, just because it was a depressing place to watch a game and to visit as a tourist. I've been to half of the current ballparks, including Oakland, so that tells you something.

For the Cell, you sometimes can find below face value on the secondary market, or just walk up and buy when you get there (and feel free to move around).

Hold up - when I was there about 10 years ago or so they did not allow movement between levels. That was one of the reasons I hated it so much. As a visitor, I wanted to walk around and explore the stadium, even if I couldn't go down and sit on the lower level (and this was a mid-week game when the Sox were terrible, so there were definitely plenty of seats). But I was stopped by an usher when I tried to enter the lower level concourse (not the club level) and told that I could only walk around the upper deck. That played a big part in my awful experience there.

You could also just scalp when you get there. I usually just buy mine before the year/from people I know (Spahn Insane still has his tickets I think, so it might be worth just dropping him a note).

Thanks, will do! I'm gonna be in Chicago for a few days with family before heading on to the SABR convention in Pittsburgh, and I may have time to grab drinks with primates while in Chi-town, if anyone's up for that.

The...other stadium...was probably the worst experience I've had at the parks I've visited.

From how empty it was this week, I'm not worried about buying great seats :)

Thanks, will do! I'm gonna be in Chicago for a few days with family before heading on to the SABR convention in Pittsburgh, and I may have time to grab drinks with primates while in Chi-town, if anyone's up for that.

Sure, keep us updated. I haven't met up with people in a while, but there's always a handful of guys here that'll find time.

Okay, I will do some Wacha Wacha as is tradition in my country, until the Yanks slaughter the Red Sucks.
-Dancing like Shakira-

So if the Cards don't sweep the Reds, the season is basically over, no ?
Doesn't matter if DeJong is good ? And Molina frames like a madman ...

Wacha always seems to perform well against Cincinnati, even though some of the Reds hitters do give him trouble. Joey Votto is 13-for-34 (.382) against him with one homer and four RBIs, and Scooter Gennett is 8-for-25 (.320).

Cardinals have a couple of "number threes" that you hope can break out, with Wacha being one of them. With a fip(3.66) and an era(3.86) roughly equivalent, and a career era+ of 103, but a guy who always tantalizes as being better than that.

The ball really carries in Cincy, Jose Martinez with what looked like to be a routine flyout to right ended up having a deep flyout on the warning track.

Edit: this is something that I'm looking forward to statcast data being able to deliver the info on... how a ball carries in different parks, on certain days. Obviously we'll need about three years of data or more before anything could be gleaned, but still it seems like something that would be nice to see, and something that might be used in the future in design of future stadiums.

I just hate how it's become such a thing that you're basically forced to throw a ball back. Eventually, I guess someone will throw a fake ball if you insisted on keeping it.

this exact thing happened at Wrigley a couple of years ago and was pulled off by a kid.

I was in the bleachers at the 1990s game when the Cardinals hit SEVEN homers there - six of which were caught by Cardinals fans. it took some, er, cajoling, but eventually all seven were tossed back to the field.

Billy Hamilton only has a career line of .227/.291/.289/.580 against the Cardinals.... I imagine if you asked any Cardinal fan his line against the Cardinals, they would guess about .300 higher. (still 30 runs in 60 games, and 27 sb in that time frame)

Like I said, I don't get not giving Lin at least one start during the series, especially on a messy night where you could probably use the defense. But, hey, apparently this is good enough against a .500 team like the Yankees. :)

Ricky Horton likes to tell the story that he literally gave up a home run on his first major league pitch. He's enjoying talking about a guy who just gave up back-to-back homers against his first TWO batters.

With the prevalence of one inning pitchers, double switches isn't quite as important as they used to be, especially with limited bench space because of expanded bullpens.

I'm not getting the Reds manager at all in going for the double switch every chance he gets. Heck the original pitching spot hasn't batted yet from the previous double switch. When people bag on Matheny, this is something I'm going to point out as an example of poor managing.... The Reds manager has been an idiot tonight when it comes to roster management.